Germs 101: Songs and rhymes are teaching tools in Rockford schools

ROCKFORD - You can tell a kid to wash his or her hands and how important it is, or you can turn it into a game with a funny song and watch them scurry to the sink.

"My daughters tease me - 'Mom, do you have a song for everything?' - You know, I think I do," said Sylvia Landreth, a bilingual teacher at Summerdale Early Childhood Center. "I have a song for staying in line. I have a song for sitting still. ... It helps them learn new things and remember how to do things. It makes it fun."

Most of Landreth's songs are originals, made up especially for her students. A popular one this past winter has been "Matemos Los Germenes Mugrosos." (Translation: Let's kill the filthy germs.)

The song is a story about lather and how it whisks germs away. The germs end up at the bottom of the sink, where students can say good-bye to them as they go down the drain. Landreth wrote the simple tune to last about 20 seconds, the same length of time that health officials recommend for hand washing. That way she and students can sing the song and know they've washed long enough.

In Illinois, the October-to-April flu season spans much of the school year. Teaching students about personal hygiene and how to stop the spread of germs tends to start young and goes year-round from the first sniffle to the last "gesundheit."

At the preschool level, schools are judged on how well they follow state standards for cleanliness and hygiene, explained Kim Nelson, executive director of early childhood education for the Rockford School District. Those standards help keep kids and staff healthy, she said, and it helps staff model good personal health and hygiene habits for students. Habits from preschool become routine in elementary school and second nature by the time students are young adults.

This year's flu hasn't been as severe as previous years, but educators put just as much emphasis on the lessons. Students learn to wash their hands after they play outside, after gym, before they eat, Nelson said.

Lots of teachers use songs to help them get the job done. Some have students sing their ABCs or "Happy Birthday" as they wash. At the preschool level nearly all of the classrooms have sinks for easy access and to promote frequent hand washing.

Other lessons include how to sneeze and cough. Kids are taught to cough and sneeze into the crook of their elbow as opposed to covering their mouth and nose with their hands.

Some teachers use activities involving glitter to show students how quickly and easily germs spread. This can be extremely helpful with young children, educators said, because they have a more difficult time understanding things they can't see.

At Kishwaukee Elementary School, principal Aimee Kasper said her students learn the 2-2-2 rule.

"It's two pumps of soap, two paper towels and then you get two points for getting your paper towels in the waste basket," Kasper said. "It's an easy way to remember to make sure you use enough soap. Then, you want to make sure you don't use too many paper towels to dry off. And then, we want everyone to get their two points because we don't want those paper towels all over the bathroom floor."